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Interna

Interna

Sep 15 2021 | comment(s)

In the ancient past, when a good portion of blog followers were interested in the writers' lives more than in actual content, I used to write a lot more about private issues here. I don't do that so often any more mainly because I think the interest of readers has shifted - or better, the composition of readers has changed. But I am not less keen to discuss private issues today than I was ten years ago. Privacy is not among the priorities of a blogger true to him- or herself anyway, at least from my point of view.
So, what am I up to these days? I thought I could give you some update. Maybe in one of my future posts I will also summarize the various research activities I am engaged in as of late, but let's keep this out of today's post. 
Lots Claim On Surveys That They'll Help Fight Climate Change - But Surveys Are Not Behavior

Lots Claim On Surveys That They'll Help Fight Climate Change - But Surveys Are Not Behavior

Sep 14 2021 | comment(s)

Before COVID-19, it was a large number of Democrats and a tiny number of Republicans who distrusted vaccines, believing something like that they caused autism, or that FDA was in cahoots with Big Pharma, or some weird supplement was just as good as medicine.(1)

While on surveys they all claimed to believe in natural medicine and that communicable diseases were no big deal(2), when the pandemic hit, not only did they buy up all of the Clorox and Purell, celebrities and other wealthy coastal elites who denied vaccines for their kids were paying their way to the front of the line to get this one - and ironically demanding it for their children.
Epidemiology Paper Correlates Vaping To Anorexia - And Then We Wonder Why Anyone Is Skeptical About COVID-19 Data

Epidemiology Paper Correlates Vaping To Anorexia - And Then We Wonder Why Anyone Is Skeptical About COVID-19 Data

Sep 13 2021 | comment(s)

In 2021, it is vital that the public trusts epidemiologists when it comes to disease transmission. The cultural obstacle is that epidemiology is such a large field, much of it populated by woo. Osteopaths hurt their own reputations by not demanding that hucksters like Joe Mercola have his license revoked, while epidemiologists who want to be trusted guides now need to recognize they have to overcome suspect claims about some new fad food linked to increasing longevity, trace chemicals linked to changes in hormones, and that particulate matter so small it takes an electron microscope to see it is linked to early deaths.
California Hurt Themselves With Solar Power The Way Sri Lanka Did With Organic Food

California Hurt Themselves With Solar Power The Way Sri Lanka Did With Organic Food

Sep 10 2021 | comment(s)

Just a few weeks ago, Sri Lanka underwent a meltdown. The price of food had skyrocketed and it was all because instead of believing scientists they believed Russia or Pesticide Action Network or whoever claims the organic process "is ready" to feed everyone and switched. 

After a whole lot of people who have never farmed made the decision, its collapse was sudden. They switched to organic in May and by August exports were down because yields plummeted. People hoarded food because they knew what was happening and then the government had to create police units to raid homes and steal it so it would not be sold on the black markets that exploded in volume.
Perhaps Age Matters More Than Genetics In Risk Of Illness As We Get Older

Perhaps Age Matters More Than Genetics In Risk Of Illness As We Get Older

Sep 10 2021 | comment(s)

How powerful are the genes that make up our bodies? The Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research notes that as many as half of our traits may be inherited from our genes. Additionally, those double-helix DNA strands are responsible for all the proteins that are necessary for life.

Moon Fall: Sci Fi or Fantasy?

Moon Fall: Sci Fi or Fantasy?

Sep 09 2021 | comment(s)

There is almost nothing that could make the Moon fall towards the Earth that wouldn’t disrupt the orbit of the Earth around the Sun as well as the other planets. However, there is no apparent violation of the laws of physics in this trailer. As surprising as that may sound physics allows for things far stranger than the Moon colliding with the Earth. The real question is what could put the Moon on a collision course with the Earth in such a short time frame that we would not see it coming for millions or billions of years in advance? Aliens of course. Which may violate the laws of biology if they are human looking which while not impossible is not probable.

How Is The Anti-Vax Organic Consumers Association Still Getting Endorsed By Journalists?

How Is The Anti-Vax Organic Consumers Association Still Getting Endorsed By Journalists?

Sep 08 2021 | comment(s)

I can understand why New York Times journalists sometimes buy into the claims of Organic Consumers Association: They sound like a legitimate group because they have been quoted in the New York Times, they claim to be progressives, and they claim Food Is A Corporate Conspiracy, and you are only getting paid by the New York Times if you share those values, or are at least a nationally renowned token alternative to them.

But editors should know better by now.
Organic Industry Activist Paul Thacker Gets A Restraining Order From A Teacher He Harassed

Organic Industry Activist Paul Thacker Gets A Restraining Order From A Teacher He Harassed

Sep 07 2021 | comment(s)

Paul Thacker, once an up-and-coming journalist whose early zealotry became so worrisome even his former mentor disavowed him, has made key connections in his career due to sharing the right politics and the right anti-science positions.  Which is to say left.
Activists Who Spent 40 Years Blocking Water Projects Now Say They're Unneeded Or They'd Have Been Built

Activists Who Spent 40 Years Blocking Water Projects Now Say They're Unneeded Or They'd Have Been Built

Sep 07 2021 | comment(s)

In the midst of wildfires that occur with more severity because environmentalists block responsible logging and tree management in California, environmentalists who have blocked water infrastructure now say we don't need the infrastructure voters passed into law...or it would already have been built.
How Microbes Can Mine Rocks In Space (And How It Could Save Earth)

How Microbes Can Mine Rocks In Space (And How It Could Save Earth)

Sep 07 2021 | comment(s)

Mining is a messy process. It takes a lot of effort to break open rocks to get the materials needed to keep our current technological level on earth. The march of technology has produced some massive leaps and bounds in communication and quality of life improvements. However, most of these are predicated on the availability of difficult-to-find elements.
Differentiable Programming For Experimental Design

Differentiable Programming For Experimental Design

Sep 06 2021 | comment(s)

Today I am giving the opening speech at a workshop with the same title of this post. The workshop takes place at the Center for Particle Physics and Phenomenology of Université catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, and it is in a mixed formula - we will have 33 in-person attendees and 72 more attending by videolink. 
The workshop is organized by the MODE collaboration, which I lead. It is a small group of physicists and computer scientists from 10 institutions in Europe and America, who have realized how today's deep learning technology allows us to raise the bar of our optimization tasks - we are now targeting the full optimization of the design of some of the most complex instruments ever built by humankind, particle detectors.
Your Dog Does Understand You - They Use Your Emotions To Predict Your Actions Much Like People Do

Your Dog Does Understand You - They Use Your Emotions To Predict Your Actions Much Like People Do

Sep 03 2021 | comment(s)

Man's best friend learns to understand human emotions, and that can help them predict our behavior and informs their decision making.
We Don't Need Facebook Authoritarianism: Casual People Spot Fake News As Well As Paid Fact Checkers

We Don't Need Facebook Authoritarianism: Casual People Spot Fake News As Well As Paid Fact Checkers

Sep 03 2021 | comment(s)

It has become common for political activists to demand that social media engage in bans and content warnings, because the other side is too stupid to know false facts from the real kind. In reality, everyone who takes their politics too seriously is inclined to believe the worst when it comes to others, and calling for bans is more of a patronizing way to pretend they care about discourse when they most just want to control it.

This has led to companies like Facebook and Twitter either outright censoring some content or putting nonsensical fact checking warning labels on it. Here is a case in point from our own Facebook page:



Here is what it was ridiculing:
Coronavirus, Now In Its 21,000th Year Of Causing Pandemics

Coronavirus, Now In Its 21,000th Year Of Causing Pandemics

Sep 02 2021 | comment(s)

Coronavirus may only have been identified as distinct from the common cold in the 1960s, and it may have only had two pandemics (SARS and MERS) in this century prior to COVID-19, but there is a reason it is called COVID-19 and not just COVID. There have been too many to know about.

Viruses evolve and adapt. New research shows Sarbecoviruses they have been hitting us with disease for over 20,000 years.
Economist: Progressives Are Ruining Liberalism

Economist: Progressives Are Ruining Liberalism

Sep 02 2021 | comment(s)

A San Francisco social justice warrior has very little in common with a New York City cop. Yet they are both voting Democrat. They both wrap themselves in the flag of 'liberalism' but the social authoritarians who dominate the fringe arm of liberalism - progressives - are actually ruining it, argues The Economist.
Extreme Pandemics Like COVID-19 Aren't Rare, We Roll The Dice Each Year

Extreme Pandemics Like COVID-19 Aren't Rare, We Roll The Dice Each Year

Sep 02 2021 | comment(s)

COVID-19 is certainly worse than the SARS and MERS pandemics that occurred a few years prior, and the reasons why SARS-CoV-2 is worse than those others is open for debate, but one thing is not; pandemics, even extreme ones, are not as rare as many believe.

The big difference between pandemics now and those of prior generations is the prevalence of real-time media and worldwide connections never available before. We have no real way to know how many people the Asian Flu of the 1950s killed because there was even less transparency in China then than there is now. Likewise, the Spanish Flu may have killed far more than we know, just as we don't know how many died in a country like Brazil or China.
Compact Speakers Can Be Better Than Ever, Thanks To Controlled Destruction Of Sound

Compact Speakers Can Be Better Than Ever, Thanks To Controlled Destruction Of Sound

Sep 01 2021 | comment(s)

Devices we watch and listen on are smaller than ever, which means speakers for sound are as well. In the past, it was difficult to get quality sound from small parts because sound is still analog when it gets to us, and that takes surface area. 

Like synthetic grape flavor, using one important part when it requires lots means a result is not quite right. Today's compact speakers are more like synthetic banana flavor; you are unlikely to know the difference, and that is due to mastering physics beyond the surface area - controlled destruction of sound waves.
Can The Aidan Tree Be An Epilepsy Treatment?

Can The Aidan Tree Be An Epilepsy Treatment?

Aug 31 2021 | comment(s)

Epilepsy is a brain disorder that arises from imbalances of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. This disorder manifests as recurring seizure, unconsciousness and momentary loss of memory. These events are frequent and unpredictable. This is because the brain cells called neurons either overwork or are unable to balance the release of two chemicals that are vital for normal brain function: gamma aminobutyric acid and glutamate.

The burden of epilepsy in Nigeria is high, with estimated prevalence of eight per 1,000 people.

Sci Fi Or Fantasy? A Few Easy Rules to Know The Difference.

Sci Fi Or Fantasy? A Few Easy Rules to Know The Difference.

Aug 31 2021 | comment(s)

 Is what we are seeing in a science fiction TV show like Star Trek or a movie like Star Wars possible is the whole thing science fiction aka fictional science or is it a total fantasy that could never happen? The laws of physics and biology are the ones fantasy and fantasy within sci fi will most often break.  Fiction that tries to respect them is science fiction, fiction that does not is fantasy or perhaps science fantasy. There is an easy way to answer this and it comes by knowing just a few basic laws of physics.
Louisiana Has Important Things To Worry About, Lawyers Shouldn't Invent A 'Cancer Alley' To Pile On

Louisiana Has Important Things To Worry About, Lawyers Shouldn't Invent A 'Cancer Alley' To Pile On

Aug 31 2021 | comment(s)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public fell back in love with science. In the first 19 years of this century, Californians denied vaccines to such an extent a law had to be passed to prevent coastal parents from creating a Whooping Cough pandemic. Every building had cancer warnings somewhere - even oncology wards in hospitals warned cancer patients they might get cancer by visiting their doctor - and Non-GMO Project rock salt(!) took off.

That has now changed.(1) For most of the country, Purell, Clorox, and Lysol replaced bottles of useless green-labeled goop that claimed to be natural alternatives. People wanted what worked.